It's now 20 days since our scheduled departure date and we're.....
still in Bundaberg!!!
The delay was caused by a major repair to our boat - painting the topsides. Basically when we bought the boat four years ago we inherited a bad paint job. Apparently the yard previously responsible for painting Brilliant II had neglected to use primer. Consequently the topcoat never quite stuck and had begun flaking off in unsightly chunks.
We hauled out on May 18th and watched as the high pressure hose (usually used to clean below the waterline) decimated what was left of our paint. The easy way out of our dilemma (or so we thought) was to polish up the gelcoat, apply some antifoul, re-launch and we'd be off.
A complete re-paint was starting to seem inevitable, but re-painting the topsides is usually a time-consuming and expensive job. It typically costs between $10,000 and $20,000 to have a hull re-sprayed. The alternative is to find a user friendly product and be prepared to DIY. Our bank balance dictated going with the latter option.
Unfortunately the gelcoat wasn't in great shape. In fact, our boat looked like an old cigarette-stained pub ceiling - yuk!
A complete re-paint was starting to seem inevitable, but re-painting the topsides is usually a time-consuming and expensive job. It typically costs between $10,000 and $20,000 to have a hull re-sprayed. The alternative is to find a user friendly product and be prepared to DIY. Our bank balance dictated going with the latter option.We chose a system designed by Australian manufacturers Wattyl. In all, we applied 2 coats of epoxy primer, 3 coats of high-build epoxy undercoat and 3 coats of polyurethane topcoat, sanding back between every coat. The primer and undercoats were easy to apply with a roller. They also sanded back beautifully to a smooth finish.
The topcoat was a little trickier - gloss is not so forgiving and we had to employ a technique known as 'roll and tip'. Julian would roller the paint on and I would use a high quality brush to 'tip' it off, getting rid of the air bubbles and (hopefully) leaving few brush strokes. I was pleasantly surprised by the finish.
The final touches were re-painting the boot-top and red groove and re-applying vinyl lettering.
Julian completed some repairs below the waterline and re-antifouled.
The whole process took an entire month and on June 17th we were finally ready to go back in the water, which is where a boat belongs!
